Her Own Creation
by gruffendragon
Summary: Harley Quinn did not come to be the way you thought she did. Molded by the Joker? Please. She may have fallen in love with him, but she is no creation of his. (Harley Quinn x The Joker)


**Chapter 1**

 ** _(A/N) This is my view of the characters the Joker, and Harley Quinn. Namely, how she became who we know her as now. This is the first story I've posted here, and I hope you enjoy! I do not own any characters depicted in this story, they all belong to Detective Comics_ **

Harley Quinn was not _created._ Oh, no. Especially not by the hands of the Joker.

Harley is intelligent. Much more intelligent than she makes herself out to be. Batman knows this. The Joker knows it too, and yet even he underestimates her on occasion. It is important to know that she was never 'turned' crazy, or anything ridiculous like that, by the Joker. In fact, the truth is that she used him. Yes, she used him in her own way almost as much as he thought he used _her._

Harleen Quinzel, a pretty, young woman with a shiny new title: Doctor. She loved it. She loved looking at herself in the mirror, wearing her lab coat, and saying over and over again "Doctor Quinzel. _Doctor._ " She did it, she was a real psychiatrist now, with a new job at Arkham Asylum. Maybe she accomplished this with some tricking and cheating along the way, but that never bothered her. It wasn't as if she was stupid, after all. Harleen knew she very much had what it took to carry around that title, she just had trouble with assignments turned in too late, and other mishaps of the like that lowered her grade. If anything, her manipulation tactics to fix those errors are more than enough proof that she does _indeed_ have what it takes to be a psychiatrist, to get inside people's heads.

Now, it was true. The criminally insane fascinated her. The twistedness she saw in them so tickled her mind because she saw many of the same things in herself. She was just on the other side of the glass. Exciting, she called it, to study these extreme personalities. A challenge, she said, was what she wanted out of working at Arkham. So, if she loved a challenge so much, would she really have blindly fallen victim to the Joker's tricks? No, not at all.

Harleen studied him. He was the one she was really after. Yes, other patients would be interesting to get to know, but the Joker… He was in his own league, and Harleen was determined to join him there. He was the most dangerously intelligent of them all, this she knew. She didn't have to do much digging at all to know this, it was as plain as day with everything he'd accomplished in his criminal career, and the amount of times he escaped not only from Arkham but from the Batman's grasp as well. No other could shake a man right out of his skin with a simple glance and a wicked smile. No other was more feared. This opportunity to meet him face to face thrilled her. Harleen lived on the adrenaline that fear gave her (she got way too excited watching horror movies) Other doctors had tried to pry into his mind, to be the one to figure him out, but every single one of them were foiled in their attempts, and miserably so. Harleen believed she had the chops to take on the Joker, she would open him up one way or another. And open him up she did, but it happened much later than she anticipated.

"You can't deny, there's an element of glamour to these super-criminals." Harleen said to Dr. Joan Leland. Leland shivered slightly at the way Harleen spoke, and the glimmer in her eyes as she did so. Dr. Leland certainly would not describe it that way. "I'll warn you right now: these are hard-core psychotics" she said, "They'd eat a novice like you for breakfast." Harleen looked down the hallway, glancing over the cells of inmates, watching them with the tiniest sliver of a smile on her face. This perturbed Joan almost as much as some of her patients did. "Do you understand that, Harleen?" Joan asked, a little forcefully to get the girl's attention. Harleen turned to Dr. Leland with earnestness in her expression, replying "Yes, Dr. Leland, of course." She turned away again, taking in the surroundings of the asylum. "I'm not as soft as I look."


End file.
